Part one of our five-part series covering strategies to accelerate growth and break down organizational silos in research administration.
In the fast-paced and often understaffed world of research administration, collaboration has never been more essential. This is the focus of Cayuse’s Accelerated Growth Series, which explores topics on the theme of breaking down silos to drive results.
In the first webinar of the series, Cayuse Director of Solutions Consulting Stef Friesen drew upon her deep experience in research administration to present insights on how to increase visibility from proposal through to close out.
The objectives of the webinar were to:
- Understand the risks associated with siloed information in the Pre- and Post-Award process
- Strategize ways to improve the documentation and sharing of information across teams
- Brainstorm eRA solutions to common challenges and barriers to collaboration
The complexity of collaboration
All institutions, regardless of size or complexity, have an inherent need for collaboration from the inception of an idea right through to project close out. But collaboration isn’t always easy to achieve.
The 2023 Cayuse Benchmark Report underlined this point, revealing that over 75% of participants experienced an increased workload last year, with 52% noting that the increase was significant. One of the most time-intensive activities in research administration was voted to be communication and collaboration, surpassing even compliance and reporting as an undisputed black hole for time.
Every organization divides its research administration responsibilities differently, depending on the institution size, portfolio complexity, staff experience level, and investment in eRA technology. But one thing does not change: the inherent need to collaborate from square one, from proposal inception all the way through to close out. This necessitates clear communication between team members working in compliance, pre- and post-award, tech transfer and intellectual property, researchers, and external collaborators.
Challenges at the intersection of pre- and post-award
Budgets
Budgets weave through a project from inception to completion. The journey begins with creating an initial budget alongside a researcher. This budget will inevitably undergo extensive modifications during the pre-award process and again after the award is secured to accommodate changes to the research team, sponsors revising their contributions, etc. It’s not unusual to see a budget with a file name like “V12finalfinalreallyfinal”—evidence of the extensive revision process.
On top of this constantly moving target, the challenge of translating budgets from research to accounting language (and back again) remains significant, demanding meticulous work from the research administration office to ensure accurate spending and tracking.=
External collaborators
External collaborators such as subrecipients and subcontractors are vital for research projects. Subawards are established when the grant is submitted, at which time a risk assessment is performed and a subaward budget and agreement are put in place.
As we bridge into post-award, we see intertwining tasks, such as:
- Confirming the subaward
- Budget modification
- Verifying subaward information
- Setting programmatic and fiscal guidelines
- Sharing terms and conditions
Post-award focuses on monitoring throughout the life of the award, including overseeing subrecipient spending and programmatic commitments and implementing corrective plans from audit findings where necessary.
Clear communication
Finally, there’s the complexity of keeping communication efficient and effective when working on large projects across multiple stakeholders and teams. Most of this communication is done via email, but this can be a needlessly painful approach. After all, no one else has access to your inbox; if key communication comes in while you’re on vacation, you are the only one who can reply.
Top core metrics for measuring success
Given these challenges, how do we quantify success?
Pre-Award Metrics:
- Grant submission rate
- Dollar value by PI or department
- Funding by sponsor
- Proposal success rate
- Research funding by growth
Post-Award Metrics:
- Award spending
- Number of grants closed out, fully utilized, and not in deficit
- Sub-award spending
- Number of cost transfers/payroll processed on a fund
- Employee usage
Each team’s objectives are impacted by the effectiveness of the other, highlighting the need for successful collaboration and effective workflows for grant management, budget creation, and inter-team communication.
When measuring the success of collaboration between pre- and post-award teams, three themes emerged from our live poll:
- Established and utilized workflows to facilitate successful grant management
- Efficient and accurate budget creation and financial spend
- Effective communication across teams
How to break down silos with Cayuse Sponsored Projects and Proposals (S2S)
The dynamic duo of Cayuse Sponsored Projects and Proposals (S2S) isn’t just a pre-award function; there is a significant crossover to post-award as well. These applications handle project management from start to finish, from proposal submission through to close out.
Proposals (S2S)
Cayuse Proposals (S2S) facilitates federal applications via a single portal so teams don’t have to learn dozens of disparate systems to submit applications. S2S streamlines the completion of all federal forms, conducts over 1,500 real-time validations, and supports multi-project proposals.
Sponsored Projects
Sponsored Projects is an administrative system of record that serves as a central hub for the sponsored projects office. It ensures a comprehensive historical archive with an automated audit trail and centralized visibility, helping teams manage:
- Organized data collection
- Routing and approvals
- Internal workflows
- Contract negotiation and tracking
- Subrecipient management
Used together, S2S and Sponsored Projects provide a complete historical record with an automated audit trail, accessible project status, and central location to ensure maximum visibility.
How Cayuse helps solve pre- and post-award challenges
Cayuse’s eRA software suite helps pre- and post-award teams bridge the gap, improve communication, and increase visibility from proposal to close out.
- Budget Oversight: Cayuse provides a central hub that handles everything from facilitating federal application forms to detailed budgeting and congruency checks.
- Subrecipient Management: Effortless tracking from pre- to post-award, fortified by features like subawards.com for external collaboration.
- Enhanced Visibility: Document sharing, budget tracking, and customized data views ensure that each stakeholder has the information they need at their fingertips.
- Seamless Navigation: The Cayuse platform offers unparalleled integration capabilities and integration across various tools, ensuring a unified research administration experience.
